On 2013-10-20 10:36, The Gnomon wrote:When I make a Mai Tai I like to take the following account into consideration:

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I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year-old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica; surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends. The flavor of this great rum wasn't meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle almond flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color ... I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, "Mai Tai - Roa Ae". In Tahitian this means "Out of This World - The Best". Well, that was that. I named the drink "Mai Tai".

Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr.

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This account used to be posted on the official Trader Vic's website but years ago they removed it and since that time have continually butchered the site. Now there's hardly anything on it.

Thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at www.archive.org, you can go back to some of the earliest versions of various web addresses. In this case, the Trader Vic's website as it was in October of 1999. Ancient pages by today's standards. Here are a couple of the pages that speak to the creation and evolution of the Mai Tai.